The People of Atlantis
by Sparky Lurkdragon
Summary: The story of the only humans who have any relevance in Ecco's world, as told by one of them.


Disclaimer: Ecco and his world belong to Appaloosa Interactive.  
Author's Note: This story takes place in the original Genesis games' storyline.

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I am not sure where to begin. It has become clear that my story – or, really, the story of my people – has no real beginning and no real end. But it should be set down, somewhere, somehow, somewhen, so I suppose I will start from where I entered our story; the story of the people of Atlantis.

I grew up in a time approximately fifty-five million years before the time I am in now. Our city was built of trees that no longer exist, we ate fruits that no longer exist, and we hunted animals that no longer exist. Our town, which we called Little Atlantis, was much smaller and closer to the beasts and plants than the original Atlantis is – though we had been there for some time, we all knew enough of the history of our people and had enough common sense that we did not want to tamper too much with the way things were then. But I am getting ahead of myself.

One day, fairly recently in my own mind, I was walking on the outskirts of Little Atlantis, simply observing the life around me, when I heard a strange noise. I turned around to see a hole in the air – in the time stream. Out of it flew a dolphin. She looked much like a bottlenose dolphin, but her fins were all quite a bit longer than those of the bottlenose dolphins who swim in Atlantis' time, and I think she was a fair bit bigger, as well. And, of course, she could fly. She could speak, too, after a fashion. But again, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

I was naturally very surprised to see first the hole in the air and then the strange dolphin. I had never seen a dolphin before, though of course history had taught me about them; I did know that dolphins would not be able to fly, not in the time of Atlantis. Our history had taught me of one flying dolphin, but I didn't really remember it until after she 'spoke' to me, for it was the dolphin who said something first.

Initially, she made a series of noises that must have been her own language; when she seemed to find that I could not understand her, she went silent for a moment before using what we call telepathy, what I will teach the people of this time, and what we will use to program the Glyphs. I saw our people's past and future through the story the flying dolphin told, the story of a bottlenose dolphin. I saw one of the terrible storms that occur once every five-hundred years; left behind, alone in a bay, I saw the great dolphin with the Dolphin on his head, the one our ancestors had predicted: the one I predict.

The dolphin who will be left behind will start a search for his family. On his way, he will talk with our Glyphs and receive their wisdom; he will speak with a strange creature, the oldest in the sea, and he will use our time machine to help it. Our machine will be in the sunken ruins of our city Atlantis; our Glyphs will tell him of his and our unseen enemy, the cause of the great storms.

Before the dolphin's time, our great telescopes will be focused on the head of the constellation Pegasus, and they will see the source of this threat – planet Vortex, third planet in the Cassandra system. Every five-hundred years, when the Earth and Vortex have a clear path to each other, the Vortex life-forms feed from the seas of the Earth. Each feeding is increasing in size – eventually, all life on Earth will be harvested unless the Vortex can be stopped. This dolphin of the future will be the one to stop them; he will travel to planet Vortex of the Cassandra System, and he will defeat their repulsive Queen.

After telling me the dolphin's story, the flying dolphin took me through the time stream to now, to Atlantis before it was sunk. One day, a beam from space, from Vortex, will turn Atlantis to rubble and sink it. The survivors will escape into the past, to the time I came from, and build Little Atlantis. I will be born back then, and the flying dolphin will come and bring me to now; thus are our people trapped in a loop in time.

All I have to offer the fight against the Vortex are my predictions – little more than the passing on of knowledge the flying dolphin granted me – and the records Little Atlantis had of the schematics for the time machine, the Glyphs, and the teleport rings. This is all that our people, all that mankind will be able to offer to the fight; it is the cetaceans who will battle the Vortex and win.


End file.
